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Kerstin and I did are usual late morning start time up to Freel Peak of 11:30 AM ..As we were getting ready to start our hike at the TH, we meant three people that had already been up and down to Freel that morning. This is a 10 mile roundtrip hike with about 2700 feet elevation gain..it's a beautiful hike that follows the Tahoe Rim Trail to the Freel saddle..from there you hike another trail 1 mile up to the peak. You have wide open views on most of this hike..we hit the wildflowers at prime bloom...we really did a lot of lolling around getting up to the peak, stopping constantly to look and take pictures of the flowers.

We finally got to the Freel saddle and ate half of our lunch & than made that last 1 mile to the summit of Freel. The wind was not at all bad, had a great time up there..I cleaned out the ammo box packed out all the trash and old food people had left in it..there are three full register books and one that is pretty new.
Spent about 45 minutes on the peak..clouds started forming so decided best to start down. Meant a couple on the way down that were backpacking to spend the night on the peak!

Stopped again at the saddle to eat the rest of our lunch, than started back down, stopping even more to enjoy the flowers. Got back to the car at 7:30
It was a great hike..the flowers are at prime right now I think in the Tahoe Basin!
My pictures of our day if anyone is interested http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/559889645bDZkwY

Hi Anita. I went for a ride up to the Butterfly Valley Botanical area today and looked around. I took all the back roads from my place. Last year I was too early to see the pitcher plants bloom and this year I was too late. They are looking good though with there new growth. A few other plants blooming in the area and a couple guys from North Carolina looking for butterflies. I gave them directions to the Lakes Basin area where they were looking for Round Lake for some reason. Thanks for your photos, beautiful day.